5 Mistakes Graduates Make On Their CV & Cover Letter

By Elizabeth Benu,

An effective cover letter is meant to explain why you are interested in the specific organization and to successfully sell yourself. At the internship level an employer needs to know or understand how your education, knowledge and skills will benefit the company.

Speaking to Florence Mukunya, a career advisor at Corporate Staffing Services Limited, she outlines several mistakes job seekers make on their internship cover letter and CV’s.

“First is the use of “Dear Sir or Madam,” or “To Whom It May Concern” instead of using the correct name of the hiring manager. Be noticeable by making sure the hiring manager knows you care enough to specify the person to whom you’re writing the cover letter to,” Ms Mukunya says

Secondly, is having a CV without  flow. “Where one starts with older achievements and finishes with the recent ones or even naming the company they went for internships or any leadership roles they had but do not include the position duties and skills.

Ms. Mukunya says that in cover letters a major mistake is the candidate reference to themselves..

“A cover letter will be filled with ‘I’, ‘myself’ or ‘me’. It isn’t about you but about what you can do for the company that matters,” she explains.

A fourth mistake as Ms. Mukunya explains is a very long cover letter or CV.

“Most candidates do not know how long these documents should be so they make it very long thinking that employers will hire them because of experience.”

She advises that, “A cover letter should not be more than a page or less than a paragraph while a CV should not exceed two pages. Even with the length your cover letter should show your expertise and not be a summary of the CV.”

She is quick to add that, “a general CV or cover letter shows lack of effort and passion to the employer. Pick experiences that are relevant to the position you are applying for to make it easy for you to tailor your documents.”

“Grammatical and spelling mistakes and use of informal terms such as “asap” shows lack of keenness on the applicants’ part. Such problems can be avoided by proof reading and double checking if you have correctly spelled the company’s name,” advises Ms. Mukunya.

Susan Wambui, a HR officer at AFEX Kenya says that in her line of work she has come across applicants who use very long cover letters and CV’s and making the same applications to many companies.

She advises that, “Make your CV and cover letter short and precise since many hiring managers do not have the time to read all that. Going straight to the point of why you want the internship in your cover letter is preferred. Also make sure you summarize your CV,” she concludes.

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